American entrepreneur Elon Musk announced the creation of a new political party America, following the results of the vote held on his page in the social network X.

"By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!" he said in a post on X. He noted that when the country is being bankrupted by [excessive] spending and bribery, its citizens live in a one-party system, not a democracy.

"Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom," he wrote on X.

More than 1.2 million users of the social network took part in the vote. 65.4% voted for the creation of the new party.

A #Gaza ceasefire is the closest it has been in months. Here’s what we know.

U.S. President Donald Trump says he’s “optimistic” a ceasefire deal in Gaza could be agreed next week after Hamas announced that it had “submitted a positive response” to a proposal for a 60-day truce with Israel.

“We have to get it over with,” Trump said Friday. “We have to do something about Gaza.”

Israel and Hamas have long had conflicting demands that negotiators have been unable to bridge, but with both now agreeing the revised proposal, for the first time in months an agreement seems within reach.

The renewed efforts gathered steam following a truce between Iran and Israel but also reflect U.S. pressure and a shift in Israel’s war goals. Here’s what to know.
Why now?

Since the Israel-Iran ceasefire on June 24, mediators Qatar and Egypt – as well as the United States – have redoubled their calls for a new Gaza truce. A Qatari foreign ministry spokesman told CNN the Israel-Iran agreement had created “momentum” for the latest talks between Israel and Hamas.

Netanyahu’s government has faced mounting international criticism for the suffering its war is inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel imposed a total blockade on humanitarian deliveries to the enclave in March. It somewhat eased the blockade in May, after a chorus of global experts warned that hundreds of thousands of people could soon starve.

Hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli strikes in recent days. And aid distribution has been marred by violence, with hundreds killed on their way to try to obtain food from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the controversial U.S.-backed aid initiative that began operating at the end of May.

Pressure is also growing on Netanyahu from within Israel.

His government is propped up by far-right figures who want to escalate the fighting in Gaza, but opposition leader Yair Lapid said Wednesday that he would join the coalition government to make a hostage deal possible. Polls have repeatedly shown that a majority of the country wants a deal to bring the hostages home, even if it means an end to the war.
What are Israel’s demands?

In addition to the aim of bringing the hostages home, Netanyahu has not wavered from his more maximalist aims: disarmament of Gaza and the destruction of Hamas’ military capabilities and governance abilities.

But last weekend, the prime minister made a rhetorical shift in laying out Israel’s goals – for the first time prioritizing the return of hostages ahead of what he once called the “supreme objective” of defeating Hamas.

Netanyahu said “many opportunities have opened up” following Israel’s military operations in Iran, including the possibility of bringing home everyone still held captive by Hamas. “Firstly, to rescue the hostages,” he said. “Of course, we will also need to solve the Gaza issue, defeat Hamas, but I believe we will accomplish both missions.”

The comments were welcomed by families of hostages held in Gaza, who have criticized him for not clearly placing releasing their Ioved ones as Israel’s primary goal. Only a small number of hostages have been rescued in military operations rather than freed under truces.

The Israeli military this week recommended pursuing a diplomatic path in Gaza after nearly two years of fighting and the elimination of much of Hamas’ senior leadership.

On Tuesday, a military official told CNN that Israel has not fully achieved all of its war goals, but as Hamas’ forces have shrunk and gone into hiding, it has become more difficult to effectively target what remains of the militant group. “It’s harder now to achieve tactical goals,” the official said.
What about Hamas?

Hamas announced on Friday that it “submitted a positive response to the mediators, and the movement is fully prepared to immediately enter into a round of negotiations regarding the mechanism for implementing this framework.”

The militant group has three main demands: a permanent end to the fighting, for humanitarian assistance to be carried out by the United Nations, and for Israel to retreat to the positions it held on March 2 this year, before it renewed its offensive and occupied the northern part of the Strip.

A senior Hamas official told CNN in late May that the group is “ready to return the hostages in one day – just we want a guarantee that war will not come again after that.” The hostages are Hamas’ key leverage in negotiations, and the militant group has refused to agree to a release without a path to end the conflict.

In response to the earlier Trump administration-backed ceasefire proposal in May, Hamas requested U.S. assurances that permanent ceasefire negotiations will continue and that fighting will not resume after the 60-day pause.

Whether the ceasefire will be temporary or a pathway to a permanent truce is the biggest sticking point between the warring parties.

While Israel wants to eradicate Hamas following the Oct. 7 attacks, the group has shown little willingness to relinquish its political and military power in Gaza.

Officials in the group have given contradictory statements as to Hamas’ role in a post-war Gaza. The group’s spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, has said that the group is not “clinging to power” and does not have to be part of arrangements “in the next phase.”
What’s in the proposed deal?

While the fine detail of the proposal is yet to be released it is clear that the revised plan is an attempt to bridge some of the differences between Israel and Hamas.

A source familiar with the negotiations said that the timeline of the latest proposal calls for the release of 10 living Israeli hostages and 18 deceased hostages spread out over the full 60-day period.

Of the 50 hostages still in Gaza, at least 20 of them are believed to be alive, according to the Israeli government.

Similiar to previous ceasefires, on the first day of the truce, Hamas would release eight living hostages. In exchange, Israel would release an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, and withdraw its forces from pre-agreed locations in northern Gaza.

Israel and Hamas would also immediately enter into negotiations for a permanent ceasefire once the initial truce goes into effect, the source said.

Under the deal, hostages will be released without ceremonies or fanfare at Israel’s request – unlike during the last truce, when Hamas staged public propaganda events around hostage transfers that sparked outrage in Israel.

Humanitarian aid will immediately begin to flow into Gaza at the start of the ceasefire, including from the United Nations and from other aid organizations, similar to the previous ceasefire which began on January 19.

This leaves the fate of the U.S.-backed GHF and its role in Gaza unclear.

The U.S. and the mediators have provided stronger assurances about reaching a settlement to end the war in Gaza as part of the updated proposal, an Israeli official told CNN, something that in principle should address one of Hamas’ key concerns. The official did not provide the specific language in the document, but said the wording is stronger than previous assurances.

Although both sides have accepted the proposal more talks must take place before a ceasefire begins.

In these proximity talks, likely to take place in Doha or Cairo, negotiators shuttle back and forth between the two sides to hammer out the final details of the agreement.

One of the key issues to resolve during proximity talks will be the timeline and location of the withdrawal of Israeli forces in Gaza during the 60-day ceasefire, according to the source.
When were the previous ceasefires?

In the 21 months of war between Israel and Hamas, ceasefires have been in place for a total of only nine weeks.

More than 57,000 people, of which more than 17,000 are children, have been killed in Gaza during the fighting, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

The first ceasefire came into effect in November 2023, but lasted only a week. In that time, 105 hostages were released from Gaza, in exchange for scores of Palestinian prisoners.

A second ceasefire was not struck until January 2025, shortly before Trump’s return to the White House. In just over eight weeks – the first “phase” of the ceasefire – Hamas freed 33 hostages, with Israel releasing around 50 Palestinian prisoners for every Israeli freed.

Under the planned second stage, Israel was supposed to agree to a permanent ceasefire. But Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, shattering the ceasefire and derailing the talks, saying it did so to put pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages.

CNN’s Jeremy Diamond, Kristen Holmes, Kylie Atwood, Dana Karni, Michael Schwartz and Oren Liebermann contributed to this report.

Christian Edwards and Lauren Kent, CNN

#Iran’s supreme leader makes first public appearance since Iran-Israel war started. TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’ s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday made his first public appearance since the 12-day war between Israel and Iran began, attending a mourning ceremony on the eve of Ashoura.

Khamenei’s absence during the war suggested heavy security for the Iranian leader, who has final say on all state matters. State TV in Iran showed him waving and nodding to the chanting crowd, which rose to its feet as he entered and sat at a mosque next to his office and residence in the capital, Tehran.

There was no immediate report on any public statement made. Iranian officials such as the Parliament speaker were present. Such events are always held under heavy security.

The 86-year-old Khamenei had spent the war in a bunker as threats to his life escalated.

After the U.S. inserted itself into the war by bombing three key nuclear sites in Iran, U.S. President Donald Trump sent warnings via social media to Khamenei that the U.S. knew where he was but had no plans to kill him, “at least for now.”

On June 26, shortly after a ceasefire began, Khamenei made his first public statement in days, saying in a prerecorded statement that Tehran had delivered a “slap to America’s face” by striking a U.S. air base in Qatar, and warning against further attacks by the U.S. or Israel on Iran.

Trump replied, in remarks to reporters and on social media: “Look, you’re a man of great faith. A man who’s highly respected in his country. You have to tell the truth. You got beat to hell.”

Iran has acknowledged the deaths of more than 900 people in the war, as well as thousands of injured. It also has confirmed serious damage to its nuclear facilities, and has denied access to them for inspectors with the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Iran’s president on Wednesday ordered the country to suspend its cooperation with the watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, further limiting inspectors’ ability to track a program that had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels. Israel launched the war fearing that Iran was trying to develop atomic weapons.

It remains unclear just how badly damaged the nuclear facilities are, whether any enriched uranium or centrifuges had been moved before the attacks, and whether Tehran still would be willing to continue negotiations with the United States over its nuclear program.

Israel also targeted defense systems, high-ranking military officials and atomic scientists. In retaliation, Iran fired more than 550 ballistic missiles at Israel, most of them intercepted, killing 28 people and causing damage in many areas.
Ceremony commemorates a death that caused rift in Islam

The ceremony that Khamenei hosted Saturday was a remembrance of the 7th century martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein.

Shiites represent over 10% of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims, and they view Hussein as the rightful successor to the Prophet Muhammad. Hussein’s death in battle at the hands of Sunnis at Karbala, south of Baghdad, created a rift in Islam and continues to play a key role in shaping Shiite identity.

In predominantly Shiite Iran, red flags represented Hussein’s blood and black funeral tents and clothes represented mourning. Processions of chest-beating and self-flagellating men demonstrated fervor. Some sprayed water over the mourners in the intense heat.
Reports of problems accessing the internet

NetBlocks, a global internet monitor, reported late Saturday on X that there was a “major disruption to internet connectivity” in Iran. It said the disruption corroborated widespread user reports of problems accessing the internet. The development comes just weeks after authorities shut down telecoms during the war.

CAIRO/TEL AVIV- Hamas said it had responded on Friday in “a positive spirit” to a U.S.-brokered Gaza ceasefire proposal and was prepared to enter into talks on implementing the deal which envisages a release of hostages and negotiations on ending the conflict.

U.S. President Donald Trump earlier announced a “final proposal” for a 60-day ceasefire in the nearly 21-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, stating he anticipated a reply from the parties in coming hours.

Hamas wrote on its official website: “The Hamas movement has completed its internal consultations as well as discussions with Palestinian factions and forces regarding the latest proposal by the mediators to halt the aggression against our people in Gaza.

“The movement has delivered its response to the brotherly mediators, which was characterized by a positive spirit. Hamas is fully prepared, with all seriousness, to immediately enter a new round of negotiations on the mechanism for implementing this framework,” the statement said.

In a sign of potential challenges still facing the sides, a Palestinian official of a militant group allied with Hamas said concerns remain over humanitarian aid, passage through the Rafah crossing to Egypt and clarity over a timetable of Israeli troop withdrawals.

Trump said on Tuesday that Israel had agreed “to the necessary conditions to finalize” a 60-day ceasefire, during which efforts would be made to end the U.S. ally’s war in the Palestinian enclave.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to comment on Trump’s announcement and in their public statements, the two sides remain far apart. Netanyahu has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, a position the militant group, which is thought to be holding 20 living hostages, has so far refused to discuss.

Netanyahu is due to meet Trump in Washington on Monday.

Trump has said he would be “very firm” with Netanyahu on the need for a speedy Gaza ceasefire, while noting that the Israeli leader wants one as well.

“We hope it’s going to happen. And we’re looking forward to it happening sometime next week,” he told reporters earlier this week. “We want to get the hostages out.”
Attacks overnight

Israeli attacks have killed at least 138 Palestinians in Gaza over the past 24 hours, local health officials said.

Health officials at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, said the Israeli military had carried out an airstrike on a tent encampment west of the city around 2 a.m., killing 15 Palestinians displaced by nearly two years of war.

The Israeli military said troops operating in the Khan Younis area had eliminated militants, confiscated weapons and dismantled Hamas outposts in the last 24 hours, while striking 100 targets across Gaza, including military structures, weapons storage facilities and launchers.

Later on Friday, Palestinians gathered to perform funeral prayers before burying those killed overnight.

“There should have been a ceasefire long ago before I lost my brother,” said 13-year-old Mayar Al Farr as she wept. Her brother, Mahmoud, was shot dead in another incident, she said.

“He went to get aid, so he can get a bag of flour for us to eat. He got a bullet in his neck,” she said.
‘Make the deal’

In Tel Aviv, families and friends of hostages held in Gaza were among demonstrators who gathered outside a U.S. Embassy building on U.S. Independence Day, calling on Trump to secure a deal for all of the captives.

Demonstrators set up a symbolic Sabbath dinner table, placing 50 empty chairs to represent those who are still held in Gaza. Banners hung nearby displaying a post by Trump from his Truth Social platform that read, “MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!”

“Only you can make the deal. We want one beautiful deal. One beautiful hostage deal,” said Gideon Rosenberg, 48, from Tel Aviv.

Rosenberg was wearing a shirt with the image of hostage Avinatan Or, one of his employees who was abducted by Palestinian militants from the Nova musical festival on October 7, 2023. He is among the 20 hostages who are believed to be alive after more than 600 days of captivity.

An official familiar with the negotiations said on Thursday that the proposal envisages the return of 10 of the hostages during the 60 days, along with the bodies of 18 others who had been held hostage.

Ruby Chen, 55, the father of 19-year-old American-Israeli Itay, who is believed to have been killed after being taken captive, urged Netanyahu to return from meeting with Trump with a deal that brings back all hostages.

Itay Chen, also a German national, was serving as an Israeli soldier when Hamas carried out its surprise attack on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking another 251 hostage.

Israel’s retaliatory war against Hamas has devastated Gaza, which the militant group has ruled for almost two decades but now only controls in parts, displacing most of the population of more than 2 million and triggering widespread hunger.

More than 57,000 Palestinians have been killed in nearly two years of fighting, most of them civilians, according to local health officials.

(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell in Tel Aviv, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Hatem Khaled in Gaza and Howard Goller in New York; Editing by Alex Richardson, Philippa Fletcher and Rosalba O’Brien)

Academics call on Ottawa to speed up Palestinian student visas, Ayman Oweida, chair of the Palestinian Students and Scholars at Risk Network, said the two students, twin sisters, were killed in an airstrike in Gaza in December.

The Palestinian Students and Scholars at Risk Network is a volunteer group of Canadian academics that helps connect Palestinian students at the graduate level and above to research projects in Canada.

But its work was set back by Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip. The Canadian government has no diplomatic presence there — which means students in the enclave have no way to register biometric data with the government in order to complete their visa applications.

The network says it has placed about 70 students in universities across the country, several with full scholarships.

“In addition to the two students that were killed, 15 students in Gaza who we’ve accepted have lost family members … direct family members, brothers, sisters, parents, and so on,” Oweida said.

Oweida, who researches cancer treatment at the University of Sherbrooke, said one student who was supposed to work with him on a project has been stuck in Gaza for a year.

He said the Canadian side of the network has reached out to MPs to try to resolve the issue, without success.

“I think the Canadian government has really an amazing opportunity here to step up its game and do something … to resolve this issue and bring these students home, home meaning Canada,” he said.

One of the Canada-bound students still stranded in Gaza is Meera Falyouna, who is living near the Rafah border crossing.

The 25-year-old masters student said she applied to the University of Regina while living in a tent with her family in December 2023. She was accepted to the industrial engineering program in April 2024 and submitted her Canadian student visa application in July 2024.

Falyouna said she was supposed to start her studies last September. Because she’s unable to provide the necessary biometric data for her visa application, she said, her file remains stuck in limbo even as she watches friends move on to study in places like France, Ireland and Italy.

“I don’t want to be among the dead people. I want to be counted as dreamers, as future engineers, professors, doctors,” Falyouna told The Canadian Press.

“I want to be a person who has impact to Canada and also one day to return back to my country and help to rebuild the Palestinian academic system.”

Matthew Krupovich, a spokesman for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, said that biometrics can only be completed once someone leaves Gaza.

He added that countries in the region, including Egypt and Israel, control their own entry and exit requirements at their borders.

People coming to Canada from Gaza also have to undergo an additional security screening since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

“As security screening is conducted by agencies outside IRCC, we are unable to provide average processing times. Each application is different and as a result, the time it takes to process may vary,” Krupovich said in an email response.

“All study permit applications from around the world are assessed equally and against the same criteria, regardless of the country of origin. Security screening is one, but not the only, factor that can result in higher processing times.”

The Rafah border crossing into Egypt has been closed since May 2024. Falyouna said the rest of her family got to Egypt just five days before the border closed.

Falyouna said she fears she and her fellow Palestinian students could lose their placements entirely.

“I’m receiving now a support from my professor. She pushed to accept my defer letter every time, but I’m still in risk to not be accepted next time because I already asked for a defer for my admission three times before,” she said.

Aaron Shafer, an associate professor specializing in genomics at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., said that a Palestinian student who was going to work with him has been trapped in Gaza for eight months.

Shafer said he thinks the student has lost weight in the last eight months due to a dire shortage of food in Gaza.

“He probably weighed — just looking at photos, we’ve never met — 60 kilograms, but he’s a small guy. And last week he said, ‘We’re happy because people are getting food. We haven’t received any yet, but we’re happy,’” Shafer said.

Shafer said that about a third of the students who have been accepted by universities in Canada are already in Egypt but are still waiting for their visa applications to be processed.

“It’s literally 70 students. And so that’s what we’re asking for, is to process the visas of 70 students that have positions in Canadian labs,” he said.

For now, all Falyouna and the other students can do is wait and try to survive.

“I want to say to the Canadian government that we want to be treated as other students who came from at-risk situations from countries of the world like Ukraine and like Syria,” she said.

Russia becomes the first country to formally recognize Taliban’s latest rule in #Afghanistan. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it had received credentials from Afghanistan’s newly appointed Ambassador Gul Hassan Hassan. The official recognition of the Afghan government will foster “productive bilateral cooperation between our countries,” the ministry said in a statement.

Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry called it a historic step, and quoted Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi as welcoming the decision as “a good example for other countries.”

The Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021 following the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces. Since then, they have sought international recognition while also enforcing their strict interpretation of Islamic law.

While no country had formally recognized the Taliban administration until now, the group had engaged in high-level talks with many nations and established some diplomatic ties with countries including China and the United Arab Emirates.

Still, the Taliban government has been relatively isolated on the world stage, largely over its restrictions on women.

Although the Taliban initially promised a more moderate rule than during their first stint in power from 1996 to 2001, it started to enforce restrictions on women and girls soon after the 2021 takeover. Women are barred from most jobs and public places, including parks, baths and gyms, while girls are banned from education beyond sixth grade.

Russian officials have recently been emphasizing the need to engage with the Taliban to help stabilize Afghanistan, and lifted a ban on the Taliban group in April.

New supply management law won’t save the system from Trump, experts say.

“It’s certainly more difficult to strike a deal with the United States now with the passage of this bill that basically forces Canada to negotiate with one hand tied behind its back,” said William Pellerin, a trade lawyer and partner at the firm McMillan LLP.

“Now that we’ve removed the digital service tax, dairy and supply management is probably the number 1 trade irritant that we have with the United States. That remains very much unresolved.”

When Trump briefly paused trade talks with Canada on June 27 over the digital services tax — shortly before Ottawa capitulated by dropping the tax — he zeroed in on Canada’s system of supply management.

In a social media post, Trump called Canada a “very difficult country to TRADE with, including the fact that they have charged our Farmers as much as 400% Tariffs, for years, on Dairy Products.”

Canada can charge about 250 per cent tariffs on U.S. dairy imports over a set quota established by the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement. The International Dairy Foods Association, which represents the U.S. dairy industry, said in March the U.S. has never come close to reaching those quotas, though the association also said that’s because of other barriers Canada has erected.

When Bill C-202 passed through Parliament last month, Bloc Québécois MPs hailed it as a clear win protecting Quebec farmers from American trade demands.

The Bloc’s bill, which received royal assent on June 26, prevents the foreign affairs minister from making commitments in trade negotiations to either increase the tariff rate quota or reduce tariffs for imports over a set threshold.

On its face, that rule would prevent Canadian trade negotiators from offering to drop the import barriers that shield dairy and egg producers in Canada from price shocks. But while the law appears to rule out using supply management as a bargaining chip in trade talks with the U.S., it doesn’t completely constrain the government.

Pellerin said that if Prime Minister Mark Carney is seeking a way around C-202, he might start by looking into conducting the trade talks personally, instead of leaving them to Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand.

Carney dismissed the need for the new law during the recent election but vowed to keep supply management off the table in negotiations with the U.S.

Pellerin said the government could also address the trade irritant by expanding the number of players who can access dairy quotas beyond “processors.”

“(C-202) doesn’t expressly talk about changing or modifying who would be able to access the quota,” he said. Expanding access to quota, he said, would likely “lead to companies like grocery stores being able to import U.S. cheeses, and that would probably please the United States to a significant degree.”

Carleton University associate professor Philippe Lagassé, an expert on Parliament and the Crown, said the new law doesn’t extend past something called the “royal prerogative” — the ability of the executive branch of government to carry out certain actions in, for example, the conduct of foreign affairs. That suggests the government isn’t constrained by the law, he said.

“I have doubts that the royal prerogative has been displaced by the law. There is no specific language binding the Crown and it would appear to run contrary to the wider intent of the (law that it modifies),” he said by email.

“That said, if the government believes that the law is binding, then it effectively is. As defenders of the bill insisted, it gives the government leverage in negotiation by giving the impression that Parliament has bound it on this issue.”

He said a trade treaty requires enabling legislation, so a new bill could remove the supply management constraints.

“The bill adds an extra step and some constraints, but doesn’t prevent supply management from eventually being removed or weakened,” he said.

Trade lawyer Mark Warner, principal at MAAW Law, said Canada could simply dispense with the law through Parliament if it decides it needs to make concessions to, for example, preserve the auto industry.

“The argument for me that the government of Canada sits down with another country, particularly the United States, and says we can’t negotiate that because Parliament has passed a bill — I have to tell you, I’ve never met an American trade official or lawyer who would take that seriously,” Warner said.

“My sense of this is it would just go through Parliament, unless you think other opposition parties would bring down the government over it.”

While supply management has long been a target for U.S. trade negotiators, the idea of killing it has been a non-starter in Canadian politics for at least as long.

Warner said any attempt to do away with it would be swiftly met with litigation, Charter challenges and provinces stepping up to fill a federal void.

“The real cost of that sort of thing is political, so if you try to take it away, people are screaming and they’re blocking the highways and they are calling you names and the Bloc is blocking anything through Parliament — you pay a cost that way,” he said.

But a compromise on supply management might not be that far-fetched.

“The system itself won’t be dismantled. I don’t think that’s anywhere near happening in the coming years and even decades,” said Pellerin. “But I think that there are changes that could be made, particularly through the trade agreements, including by way of kind of further quotas. Further reduction in the tariffs for outside quota amounts and also in terms of who can actually bring in product.”

The United States trade representative raised specific concerns about supply management in the spring, citing quota rules established under the CUSMA trade pact that are not being applied as the U.S. expected and ongoing frustration with the pricing of certain types of milk products.

Former Canadian diplomat Louise Blais said that if Canada were to “respect the spirit” of CUSMA as the Americans understand it, the problem might actually solve itself.

Ancient DNA shows genetic link between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Researchers sequenced whole genomes from the teeth of a remarkably well-preserved skeleton found in a sealed funeral pot in an Egyptian tomb site dating to between 4,495 and 4,880 years ago.

Four-fifths of the genome showed links to North Africa and the region around Egypt. But a fifth of the genome showed links to the area in the Middle East between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, known as the Fertile Crescent, where Mesopotamian civilization flourished.

“The finding is highly significant” because it “is the first direct evidence of what has been hinted at” in prior work,” said Daniel Antoine, curator of Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum.

Earlier archeological evidence has shown trade links between Egypt and Mesopotamia, as well as similarities in pottery-making techniques and pictorial writing systems. While resemblances in dental structures suggested possible ancestral links, the new study clarifies the genetic ties.

The Nile River is “likely to have acted as an ancient superhighway, facilitating the movement of not only cultures and ideas, but people,” said Antoine, who was not involved in the study.

The skeleton was found in an Egyptian tomb complex at the archaeological site of Nuwayrat, inside a chamber carved out from a rocky hillside. An analysis of wear and tear on the skeleton — and the presence of arthritis in specific joints — indicates the man was likely in his 60s and may have worked as a potter, said co-author and bioarchaeologist Joel Irish of Liverpool John Moores University.

The man lived just before or near the start of ancient Egypt’s Old Kingdom, when Upper and Lower Egypt were unified as one state, leading to a period of relative political stability and cultural innovation — including the construction of the Giza pyramids.

“This is the time that centralized power allowed the formation of ancient Egypt as we know it,” said co-author Linus Girdland-Flink, a paleogeneticist at the University of Aberdeen.

At approximately the same time, Sumerian city-states took root in Mesopotamia and cuneiform emerged as a writing system.

Researchers said analysis of other ancient DNA samples is needed to obtain a clearer picture of the extent and timing of movements between the two cultural centers.

Christina Larson, The Associated Press

#Rwanda has exercised command and control over M23 rebels during their advance in eastern Congo, gaining political influence and access to mineral-rich territory, according to a confidential report by a group of United Nations experts.

Denmark expands military service to include women, Under a law passed by Denmark’s parliament in June 2023, Denmark will require women turning 18 after July 1, 2025, to register for assessment days for potential military conscription, aligning with measures already in place for men.

Until now, women, who last year made up around 24% of all recruits, had been allowed to join the military on a voluntary basis.

“In the world situation we’re in right now, it’s necessary to have more conscripts, and I think that women should contribute to that equally, as men do,” Katrine, a recruit in the Danish Royal Life Guard, told Reuters without giving her last name.

In Denmark, volunteers are signed up first for conscription, while the remaining numbers are drawn up in a lottery system.

The armed forces are in the process of making adjustments in barracks and equipment better suited for women.

“There are different things that they need to improve, especially in terms of equipment. Right now, it’s made for men, so perhaps the rucksacks are a bit too large and the uniforms are large as well,” said Katrine.

Denmark, which together with NATO allies last week agreed to boost defence spending, plans to gradually increase the duration of the conscription period from four months to 11 months in 2026 and raise the number of recruits doing military service from around 5,000 now to 7,500 in 2033.

Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Tom Little, editing by Franklin Paul